Vaasa City Orchestra, established in 1930, has 31 musicians. It works and performs in the Vaasa City Hall, right in the center of Vaasa. From January 2016 has James Lowe been the chief conductor of the orchestra.

Vaasa City Orchestra takes into account different sorts of target audiences. In addition to the traditional concerts the orchestra produces regularly school concert tours in Vaasa and its neighboring municipalities. A free of charge senior concert is organized every year for elderly people.

In addition to giving concerts of its own, the Vaasa City Orchestra has appeared at various festivals (the Ilmajoki Music Festival, Korsholm Music Festival and Lohtaja Church Music Festival). It collaborates with the Vaasa Opera Foundation and Vaasa City Theatre and regularly appears in concert with the Seinäjoki City Orchestra. Joint concerts have also been held with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, the Umeå Symphony Orchestra and the Pori Sinfonietta. Together with the Jyväskylä Sinfonia the Vaasa City Orchestra is also the orchestra for the Jorma Panula Conducting Competition.

The Vaasa City Orchestra has been on tour to Cyprus, Italy, Norway, Sweden, USA and Iceland.

JYVÄSKYLÄ SINFONIA

Jyväskylä Sinfonia consists of 38 musicians and is known for its versatile and broad-minded way of interpreting music. Modern music from all over the world as well as pieces from the classic and romantic eras form the basis of orchestra’s repertoire.

Jyväskylä Sinfonia was founded in 1955, with Ahti Karjalainen as its first conductor. The orchestra was municipalized for the first time in 1965 and its history has seen various stages, among them phases also as a private organization in addition to the communal unit. During the years, the orchestra has been conducted by Jukka Hapuoja, Onni Kelo, Jorma Svanström, Kyösti Haatanen, William Boughton, Ari Rasilainen, Markus Lehtinen, and Patrick Gallois. Nowadays, it is the cornerstone of the cultural life in Jyväskylä and in Central Finland and very popular among its listeners. Orchestra’s chief conductor Ville Matvejeff began his period in the beginning of 2014. Matvejeff is one of the most interesting Finnish musical talents. Successful as a composer, conductor, pianist, and singer, he has established himself as an exceptionally wide-ranging musician. The orchestra’s principal guest conductor is Moshe Atzmon.

Recordings Jyväskylä Sinfonia has published nearly 40 recordings and has released music for some of the largest classical music publishing companies, such as Naxos, Ondine, Finlandia Records, and Fazer Records. The most successful cd in the orchestra’s history is the platinum-selling recording together with the luminous opera star Karita Mattila. The recording, which is published in 1998, includes music by Lasse Mårtenson. The more recent releases include Saint-Saëns’ violin concertos (2010), American overtures from the 18th century (2011), Ignaz Pleyel's music (2012), and Mauricio Kagel's flute concerto (2012). During the previous year, four cds were published: one cd of Mendelssohn’s violin concertos with Tianwa Yang, one of Domenico Cimarosa’s opera overtures, one of Peteris Vasks’ flute concerto, and another of Saverio Mercadante’s flute concertos.

At the moment, Jyväskylä Sinfonia is recording a double cd in order to celebrate Aulis Sallinen’s 80th jubilee year. The forthcoming cd contains the whole Chamber Music suite together with pianisti Ralf Gothóni, cellist Arto Noras, and string quartette Meta4. It is the first total recording of the suite and will be published by Ondine in 2015.